Babe The Blue Ox

[03wr250f]

I just wanted to do a thread on babe the blue ox, so figured I would show my truck off!

1989 f250 7.3 idi zf5 4.10
as it sits now and any questions about previous setups just ask
R&d cold air intake, 3'' dp, stage 3 fuel system, stage 1 drop in turbo, stage 1 injectors, stage 1 cam, return rails, head studs, rebuilt heads, comp 910 springs and pushrods, hypermax intercooler with custom piping to fit the stage 1 drop in, water ****, traction bars, champion radiator, aussie headlights THEY ARE AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL! I have a 110cc pump to replace the factory turbo ip i have on the truck eventually
Thats the just of it.

It started out almost 8 years ago now with hard start issues, tons of leaks and in desperate need of lots of other maintenance items. However it was in good enough shape to make it the 12 hour drive home from oregon to montana.
Bone stock 89 xlt lariat n/a 7.3 zf5 4x4 4.10
Man so many things have changed and I have learned so much along the way.
2 engine builds, 1 trans rebuild, and a lot of time and money.

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Yes I built traction bars with the truck name in it

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Yes the valve covers sparkle

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Everything on my front cover all vbelt bracets, pulleys, oil fill housing, intake manifold, coolant housings, and alternator were powdercoated sparkle black
Valve covers, fan, cold air intake, and charge air pipe are sparkle blue

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1st time the motor was out

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Notice the temperature and compass rearveiw. Its one of my favorite things ever. from an 03 gmc sierra

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And upfitter switches from a 05 ford

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This picture is how I ran for a long time after I turbod. Hypermax inter cooler and a ats 093 with ww2 and R&D 3" dp

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Back when i was n/a. Factory turbo cal ip, stage 1 injectors, raybell air cleaner with k&n filter, champion rad, 4" exhaust. Ran extremely well and had really good power for n/a. But compares nothing to being turbod!
and the picture above is how it looked when i first go the truck.

 

[nitroguy]

Nice work!!! Beautiful truck!

Hey, for what it's worth, I might head your way after I get mine together to get it timed. Do you still have your meter? You're south of Missoula? I think you're the closest, and I'll need some serious timing help once I get mine together.

You, sir, are an inspiration! Thanks for the pics and the update!

 

[03wr250f]

@nitroguy
I am,but I am not. I'm currently living in albany Oregon while my wife goes to school. I still have my meter, but I dont get to come back often enough and I really won't have time to time a truck the few times a year I go back. I think christmas time will be the first time since about February I get to go back. Thanks Corona

 

[nitroguy]

@nitroguy
I am,but I am not. I'm currently living in albany Oregon while my wife goes to school. I still have my meter, but I dont get to come back often enough and I really won't have time to time a truck the few times a year I go back. I think christmas time will be the first time since about February I get to go back. Thanks Corona

Totally get it! This whole covid thing sure puts a damper on things!

When life settles down and you do find your way back home,we should meet up. Until then,stay safe out there!

 

[03wr250f]

So I know this is inevitably going to be wordy. Sorry in advance.
When I got the truck home from oregon where I bought it. I knew it needed several things.
Glow plugs, rear brakes, valve cover gaskets, block heater, coolant flush, Injectors, injection pump, rear diff service. I am sure I am forgetting some things but for a 17yr old kid it was a lot. I worked in a open air poll barn through a montana winter on it. Wasn't the best place to work on it. But it was what I had. Finally got it up and running. Had a local shop time it and do the glow plug harness repair..
Started driving it some. I put new speakers and a new deck in it, put grab handles in the passenger side and overall loved it.
Well I started developing a trans noise that I was sure was the DMF coming apart. I was right but once I got it out I found out it was barely starting to die. Was probably good for quite a while yet. But anyway a new autozone 12"smf and I went back together.
3 days at my girlfriend's house with her dad and mom helping me I got it done.

Funny story. About a year later her mother rebuilt my drivelines, balanced, new u joints and painted them to match the truck. Talk about a awesome lady! (Spoiler alert. She worked at a driveline shop. And I married her daughter, did I mention I have the coolest mother in law?)

I was getting ready to go to college and I realized I didnt want to do 4 years of 20k+ a year to hate the next 4 years of my life. And I realized how much I loved working on my truck. I ended up going to wyotech in Laramie. Truck went with
While I was there I got some bad fuel which basically put it out of commission for 4 months while trying to figure out what all was wrong. 1 bad battery, a bad injection pump, 6 bad injectors, bad fuel and a couple bad glow plugs do not help starting in a Wyoming winter.
Anyway ended up getting a factory turbo cal ip. A few reman injectors, new glow plugs, new fuel, fuel filter, timed it and added a isspro egt trans temp and voltage gauge.
Ended up getting a job and moving to Spokane.
That's where I built my traction bars, exhaust, bought my turbo and intercooler, champion rad, installed it all. Dynod. New stage 1 injectors, window tint fast coolers, and several other smaller upgrades.

Ended up moving to Moscow idaho. (Side note: I moved using a buddies 4 horse trailer loaded to the gills because it had a second level for more junk storage. Pulling the hills max is about a 5 or 6% grade for about 2 miles. Truck help 55mph. Only one time I had to drop to 4th to keep boost below 15psi 1000* egt 55mph) And commuting 2 hours to Spokane. Well I was looking on craigslist one day and found a super duty fuel tank. Bought it got talking with the guy, bought a bunch of parts, talked about what all I had done to the truck, he was so impressed with what I had done and the quality of work on my truck he wanted to hire me then. Swapped in the fuel tank. Man did it hang low. Anyway. Went back to montana got married went to glacier for the honeymoon and while we were coming back the guy I bought parts from was texting me basically asking what it would take for me to come work for him at his auto repair shop.
We ended up coming to an agreement and moved my tools to Moscow and quit my job.
Worked there for a year and a half till the shop closed up. In that time, did the r&d cold air intake, water **** and stage 3 fuel system, and swapped back to a factory front tank. The super duty hung too low

Oh and I cant forget i decided to tear my interior out of my truck and rewire it all. I wanted to add a cleaner dedicated fuse box, solenoid, wiring harness, bulkhead connector and such for clean oe like wiring. And I figured what better time to do it and late spring? I got halfway through the project adding a second firewall bulkhead, 94 engine bay fuse box, 05 upfitter switches, and lots of relays when I got the news that we were going to be closing up shop. Panic ensues. I got my boss to come help me finish wiring so I could use my truck to move my tools.

Worked at the next job for 2 years. In that time I pulled the motor twice...

First time had everything powder coated, stage 1 drop in, head studs, rebuilt heads, cam, reseal motor, rebuild oil cooler, custom intake manifold, maxed ip, glow plugs, 6.0 glow plug harness, redid the engine bay wiring harness to clean it up. I then rerouted the intercooler piping to work with the stage 1 drop in turbo.
I ran it for 6 months that way...but the whole time I had a constant misfire. After basically testing everything we ended up figuring out I would have to tear it down. So I waited for a little while to gather parts, motivation and money to tear it down, did I mention motivation? Because I had none to do it all again.

In the mean time I did decide that since I had basically everything laying around to build hid projectors, it was about time I did. I ended up ordering s set of vision x 5x7 head lights and began cutting. And I thought I knew how much cutting needed to be done. Well I found out I was sorely mistaken. I ended up cutting them too much to the point they were unusable. Bummer.
Well I ordered a set of pilots as they were the only thing I could get. I took my time this time and still almost ended up cutting to much. Almost. I then found where I wanted to mount the projector in relation to the housing. I then set it up to jb weld the projector to the housing. Once they cured I made sure they were properly aimed and not crooked. After that i cut down a 3" PVC cap and fit it to the back of the housing. I then secured it with a nut to the back of the projector, drilled holes for wires and the breather and then jb welded it to the housing. I then taped off the back and painted them black. I then glued the lenses on and began the process of mounting them in the truck.
Aimed them then test drove.
Man were they amazing. Awesome low beam, great cut off and excellent high beam
Morimoto mini h1 7.0 projectors
Motocontrol relay harness and 4500k hid bulbs


None the less with the help of some great friends I pulled the motor again. Didnt find anything really terrible other than a couple valves had made contact with pistons not bad but slight. Best we can figure is a cam that was ground slightly off.

Well this time I got the while -you-are-in-there-itus. I removed the insulation left from the firewall. Added dei reflect-a-cool to the whole firewall, removed and cleaned the inner fenders, removed the factory insulation. Pressure washed the engine bay, rewired the engine bay, remounted and rerouted the low pressure fuel regulator and lines. I Also did the fast fill mod to the front filler neck, all while waiting on the motor to be done.
I also built a bracket for 2 ranger vacuum canisters under the driver's headlight, and rerouted the vacuum lines cleaner. I also fixed a little bit of rust on the core support driver side thanks to previous battery corrosion

I sent the rotating assembly to r&d for balancing. While there I ended up getting talked into ceramic coating the pistons, total seal 2nd rings, new mahle decompression pistons. And sleeving the block. I also did a new cam, had the heads rechecked, new lifters, head studs. I also swapped in a factory turbo oil cooler because they have more find per inch than n/a ones. I also welded bungs in the oil pan for temp senders. New 13" flywheel and 450 hp/900ft lb south bend cutch.
I then assembled it.
New gates tensioner, idle, denso ac compressor, and belt

Once I got it in. I filled with oil cranked forever couldn't get it running. Figured out glow plug took that time to die. Going back slightly I also took this time to mount my new radiator overflow cylinder, reconfigure the cold air intake shroud to fit with the serpentine setup. I also installed my recently rebuilt alternator sanded the 3 mounting bosses on top and bottom of the alt, the bracket it mounts to the head, cleaned the threads and mounting face on the head, and added a ground strap that went from the lower alt bracket mounting bolt down to the frame battery ground to make sure I had no grounding issues.

Long story short filled with fluids, fired it up ran great. Began the break in process 500 miles changed oil. Noticed I had a leaking rear main.
Took 2 tries before I was able to get it sealed up.
Front main also seeped. Took several months before I got around to fixing that.

After the break in period. I added a 3" exhaust cutout. It is about 12" behind the downpipe and dumps right at the end of the tcase skid plate.
I always wanted one and not may people have done them on diesels. Made me curious.

Well since the motor is done the way I wanted it only makes sense to rebuild the transmission right?
Well I pulled the transmission out drained it and pulled it apart and resealed/ synchro/ bearings it on a weekend. It sucked. We ended up having to cut a shim on a buddy's lathe to get preload set properly. All that and after I finally got my rear main to stop leaking I realized the input shaft seal was leaking on the transmission.

Oh cant forget about 2 months after the trans got rebuilt I found out we have to move 8 hours. Yey.

Earlier this summer I finally got around to installing my 110 cc pump. Man it has a ton more fuel available than my factory turbo pump did

As you can see this is a never ending saga.

Coming up soon I will pull the trans and take it to a local shop and have them rebuild it again to seal the input shaft seal. As I have no desire to do any such thing again.

But more recently I heard my drivers door speaker had blown out. I absolutely couldn't believe a 10+ year old pioneer speaker from Walmart that had been in and out of 3 different trucks could possibly die. Lol

The only problem is if you have read this far, you have figured out I couldn't just do speakers.
No. I pulled the door panel off. New window felt, new JBL door speakers, new window motors, new inner door handles, door lock actuators, vapor barriers, one touch down(auto down) on the drivers side, door hinges, strikers, and sound deadening for the doors. Well I ordered 50 sq ft of killmat 50 mill sound deadening and had tons left over. Btw I ordered 50 mil because I plan to do more sound deadening with other materials in the future.
On the doors I did as much of both the inner and outer door skins as I possibly could.

Wow! I couldn't believe what a difference it made just shutting the doors with no panels on them. Way way quieter. No more tin can sound..
Well I had so much left over I pulled the seat, shift towers and carpet back and sound deadened from the firewall back to the end of the drivers seat. I even double layered the trans hump. That used about 85% of the sound deadening I had.and was a good stopping point.

After that I put everything back. I didnt get to the door lock actuators yet or the door hinges since i have to pull the doors off to do the hinges, but that is a project for another day. And due to life and my wife needing stuff from home depot the doors got put back together.

Initial test drive after sound deadening. It is quieter. Around town it's pretty similar, and at 80mph it's pretty similar. But at 65 cruising it is definitely quieter. However my wife has yet to ride in it and she has a much better sense of how much it did or didn't improve.
I did notice that the music seemed louder, so maybe it is working more than I realize!

Anyway that is the highlights of babe the blue ox as of current.
And if you actually read the whole thing bravo.


Engine build specs
Junkyard '98? Ford ranger vacuum canisters
Riffraff hose holder
Dei reflect-a-cool firewall insulation
Ebay 5 port vacuum junction block
Delco ac compressor
Gates serp belt, idler and tensioner
Rebuilt the alternator in order to powdercoat it.
Had all the serpentine brackets and pulleys powder coated sparkle black
Engine tech lifters
Arp head studs
Mahle headgasket and cam bearings
Engine tech main bearings
Total seal 2nd rings
Ceramic coated mahle .10thou decompression pistons
Balanced rotating assembly
R&d drilled 13" flywheel
South bend 450hp/900ft lb single disk clutch
Motorcraft thermostat and glow plugs
Motorcraft psd glow plug relay on factory controller
Carquest/advanced auto master and slave cylinders (only auto parts store to sell aluminum housing)
Idit factory oil cooler.
Heads already had inconnel(idit) valves and comp 910 valve springs
Oil temp 1/8" npt bungs in oil pan
Dei titanium Heat wrapped crossover pipe, up pipe, and downpipe
R&d stage 1 drop in turbo
R&d 3" downpipe
R&d cold air intake
R&d stage 3 fuel system set at 9 psi.
R&d stage 1 cam
R&d stage 1 injectors
I think that is all but im sure i forgot some things.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

As you can see this is a never ending saga.

Sounds like most project vehicles.

 

[03wr250f]

Pretty much^

Here's more pics guys. Let me know if there is anything you guys want to see

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Exhaust cutout from both angles

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[03wr250f]

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Hid headlights I built

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New motor rebuilt and in

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[03wr250f]

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I am sorry for the patatoe quality photos.

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Fresh back from being sleeved

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[03wr250f]

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[jwsfarrier]

Nice build! Thanks for all the pics